Why Business Needs More Drama (and Less BS) | Michael Allosso

What do theatre and leadership have in common? According to Michael Allosso—everything. In this riveting episode of MarketPulse: Pros and Pioneers, we're joined by one of the world’s most dynamic speakers and leadership coaches. Michael has spent decades helping business leaders show up with presence, power, and authenticity using a surprisingly theatrical toolkit.

From humble beginnings as a high school drama teacher to coaching Fortune 500 CEOs, Michael shares the unusual trajectory that shaped his approach. His transformative method, “You On Your Best Day,” draws directly from the world of theatre and improvisation—teaching leaders how to heighten the stakes and captivate their audiences. It’s not fluff. It’s raw, real, and backed by years of success on stages both literal and metaphorical.

We dive deep into how personal branding goes way beyond social media, why authenticity is often misunderstood, and how improvisational thinking could be the game-changer your business needs. Michael also opens up about his own journey—from personal loss to career pivots—and what it really means to lead with intention every single day.

If you’ve ever felt like leadership should be more human, more creative, and way less robotic, this is the episode for you. Buckle up. You're about to find out how drama, done right, can elevate every aspect of business and life.

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Show Links:

Michael’s Website: https://youonyourbestday.com
Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-allosso-9ab5231
MarketPulse Directory Links: https://marketpulse.javelincontent.com/share
Powered by Javelin Content: www.javelincontent.com
Find Paul on LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/paul-banks007
ADHD Liberty – Charity Partner: http://www.ADHDLiberty.org
Sarah Templeton: http://www.SarahTempleton.org.uk
Headstuff ADHD Therapy: http://www.HeadstuffADHDTherapy.com

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Transcript

Paul: 0:29

Today we are gonna find out how mastering presence and performance, both on stage and off, can completely transform the way people respond to you both in business and in life. Today's guest is Michael aso as a master communications expert, award-winning speaker and self-awareness specialist with a unique background in theater, film, and leadership coaching. Over 20 years of experience coaching CEOs, executives, and their teams, Michael has helped business leaders master presence, communication, and authenticity. His You On Your Best Day program has transformed thousands of professionals by teaching them how to command attention, engage audiences, and elevate their impact. He's a former theater director and actor I, when I say that in my best British accent. Michael's ability to translate performance techniques into business communication is earned in numerous accolades, including multiple Speaker of the Year awards from Vistage International and TEC Canada. Michael, that is a very impressive bio's. A pleasure to have you along for the short idea. How are you?

Michael: 1:37

Well, thank you, Paul, for the best British accent too. That's what I would expect. It's, do you know whose birthday it is today? It's Queen

Paul: 1:44

No.

Michael: 1:44

the one's 497th birthday and she looks great for her age. I mean, it's so with that weighty holiday that we're celebrating, I feel so honored that I'm your guest. It's great to be with you. Miss being in the uk. If I'm gone for a month, I feel like, oh, I need to go back and speaking with you. I feel like I'm back.

Paul: 2:06

It's nice to hear. It's nice to hear because I, I think sometimes that, that divide across the water is more than we deserve at times. There are, there's a lot of, certainly East Coast America, as we were discussing before the shore, new England a lot of my friends in the, in my local area would really appreciate the connections that we have across the pond to you guys. There's a lot of closeness there.

Michael: 2:28

I'm waving to you right now. I'm looking at the pond. It's right. Outside my window, and so I'm waving. I hope you can see me.

Paul: 2:34

It's a beautiful pond. It's a beautiful pond. Michael, I think you are the first person that we've had that's, that started out with a background in theater particularly. So we've had it's amazing how many people get into marketing who come from a film background. Certainly. And I know that theater, if anything is film but exaggerated. It's more, there has to be more of a connection in the moment. So if you would, I'd like to start back there in, in how you got involved in theater in the first place. Is it always something that you wanted to do?

Michael: 3:04

I love what you said, Paul Film, but exaggerated or more in a way Is more authentic. You say exaggerated? The incongruity of that statement is that it's more real exaggeration. We generally think of as fake. The theater has to be real. There's no, you can't retake it. It is in the moment there's an interaction with a live audience. So, in the day, rarely could an actor go back and forth between theater and film. Today we see it happening quite frequently because actors are stronger and they're studying more. But you notice many film actors. Are eager to go back and do theater. Glenda Jackson, who's one of the most successful film actors, a two time Academy Award winner, outstanding British film actress, came back and did Broadway, you know, last year. Everybody wants to come back because of the authenticity, the realness of it, and I think that's always what attracted me. Think about who I am, Paul, my parents were born in the US but their parents were all born in Europe. I. And when they came to the US in those days, you were embarrassed to be from Europe, and what you did was you repressed any of your Euro European heritage. So it was all about assimilation. You know, it's very different now. My parents parents had to assimilate. Both my parents were born here, but their older siblings were not. So it was about learning a language assimilating. So my parents grew up in households of low self-esteem. Basically people who did not feel they were worthy and worked hard because, you know, there were nasty names. The, you know, the US has its history of intolerance. Everyone thinks what we're doing now is new. It's just been, it's historical. And so. I know my grandparents were such low self-esteem, hardworking people, and my parents, neither of my parents graduated from the 10th grade. my dad tells a story his, he started 10th grade school, finished the first day, and he went out and put on his football uniform to do football practice. And his dad appeared and he said, take that off. What are you doing? You have to come back and work on the farm. he grabbed my dad by the year, took him to the farm and my dad never went back to school. Flash forward to they have three sons and all they care about is that dream of educating their three sons. Now I'm in the middle. I know that will shock you because I'm so normal that you would think, how could I be a middle child? I'm a classic middle child and both my brothers are huge jocks, multi-talented athletes, multi-sport, and I was the kind of academic. guy in the middle. Now think about like if you grew up in Brighton, I grew up in a town called Arlington, Massachusetts, suburb of Boston, where everybody was either Irish or Italian. You know, there were no black people, no Jewish people. And if you didn't do sports and you were a boy, you were called pretty bad names. And so there I am, little skinny me. Everyone says, oh, you're gonna play football like your brother Joe. I'm, I really want to like study and do student council and do theater, but I didn't have the confidence to do theater until my senior year of high school. I always knew I was attracted to acting, but I just wasn't confident enough to do it. And you know what finally made me confident? And this is the sad part of this, is'cause I had a hot girlfriend senior year. So finally I had the confidence to do theater. How sad is that? And so that's when the moment began where I finally did this thing that I kept inside because I was afraid I'd be called names. And in that moment, either consciously or subconsciously, I said, I'm gonna make sure other kids never feel this way. And they see the power of theater. So the first 10 years of my career, I was a high school drama teacher. think the drive was, I wanted to open up those kids earlier than I was opened up for that incredible opportunity for them to express themselves to do that through theater. Because think about what theater does educationally, I. Paul, you know, you can cast everybody. If you choose a play and not charity casting, you choose a play. You need the macho dude, and you need the boy who's gay, who doesn't know he is gay yet. need the heavy girl who's struggling with her weight, and you need miss. Pretty cheerleader girl. need them all in order to make the play, and you cast'em in roles where they shine, where they're brilliant. They learn to love and respect each other because you can't make a play if only one person's good. It's like sports in so many ways that you have to work together as that team. that was the magic for me, bringing those kids out. And then what I was discovering was not only was I doing great things for kids and making them feel good about themselves, but I was making great art. Theater, when you feel good about yourself, you make art. And so our plays, I'm as proud of anything I directed with high school kids as I, things I directed with professional actors in my career. Stunning pieces where these kids were brilliant. so that was, I became selfish at the end of 10 years, if you will, and I said, am I gonna be happy? I'm 80 years old and the parents are making testimonials about how I changed their kids' lives and gave me a gold watch, is that gonna gimme the fulfillment that I need? And so that's when I made the decision to go get my Master's of Fine Arts in directing immerse myself in the professional theater. the journey that start. So it was always in there, probably mother said that I was dancing as a little kid. You know, that I would go out in the street and throw my shoes off and run through ponds. And I'm sure I didn't see singing in the rain with Gene Kelly when I was four years old doing that. But somehow I knew that's what I wanted to do and I was never gonna march the same drummer as my older brother. Or my dad, the macho fireman. I always knew I had a singular song that I wanted to sing. was just having the strength to sing that song.

Paul: 9:43

I think when you've got that much creative. The energy sat within you, it always finds a way to leak out in the end. You can compress it and hide it and control it for so long, but I think it always finds a way out. But I think that what you said about, you know, helping young people to find their way to let it out at an earlier age and make it more. More of a, an accepted path for kids to go without that kind of negative aspect, that negative and on. I completely see where you're coming from with that.'cause, you know, even here in the uk I can see where that is the same. We maybe not to use the same words. We, at the beginning, maybe not as exaggerated maybe a little bit more acceptable, but not quite. If that makes sense. And the drama kids were always either one end of the spectrum or the other. Right? Was always the kids that just wanted attention or the kids that really needed to get a bit more attention but didn't quite dare and kind of sat there, very quiet. And I think it takes a courageous person to help kind of change young people's. Perception, I think is the word I'm looking for. The young people's perception of that, and I think you're absolutely right. It takes all sorts. You need all the angles to do that.

Michael: 10:54

Courageous on both ends, right Paul? Because they were

Paul: 10:57

Do

Michael: 10:57

it, Me better think about the skills they were giving me.'cause when you direct high school kids, Paul, you can't miss a beat. if you, they're gonna say to you Mr. Aso, in scene three, when I handed Paul the Javelin yesterday, I handed him the javelin this way. Today I did it this way. Which did you think worked better? And if you're not paying attention, you're not honoring them the way you should. So they taught me. To be on my toes, and that's where I developed my real critical faculty Of, My secret sauce, able to look at something and to tell you in great specifics what works and what doesn't work for it, and how people are receiving it. They taught me how to use those skills. They forced me to use those skills. They demanded that I use those skills that I had developed by sitting as a little introverted. Kid watching my brother and watching my dad in a house full of all these, this swagger being quiet, I developed observation skills and then I applied that to the kids. And so it was a mutual admiration society for sure.

Paul: 12:43

So then how did you find that transition from working with children and young people through to the more professional productions that you worked on in later years?

Michael: 12:52

Yeah, was, as I said, vanity, was, man I'm doing great stuff. I wanna do this at a higher level. And I also knew that I could, I'm a professional improviser, so I also knew we, there's. improv company in Boston when I was teaching in high school, we had as a guest performer in our school. So these four hot actors came and did improv for the kids, and my eyes were bulging as I watched them.'cause the little Michael voice inside said, I can do this, can definitely do this. there was kind of a collision. You know, whether you believe in God or the cosmos, sometimes things happen and you think there must be a reason. So my fireman dad, who is so strong Dom, dad never sick, never took a day off. Paul from the fire station showed up every day and was really proud of that. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the same time that my ideal marriage. The woman I married, the woman I lost my virginity with the woman I went to the senior prom. With that, our marriage fizzled pretty much simultaneously with my dad being diagnosed with cancer terminal cancer. so this guy who thought he was gonna have 2.6 children and live happily ever after teaching drama suddenly everything got challenged. And so. I felt sorry for myself for about five minutes, and my friend Cheryl called me up one day and said, what? You know that improv company that came to your school? They're re, they want a replacement cast. They're casting six new actors. Pick up, get your energy going. I'm coming to get you and we're going to this audition. So Paul, this was an amazing audition. There were hundreds of actors. All thinking they were funny who were put up on stage and were told do a blues song about Javelins do a, a country and western song about the UK Go and you had no preparation time. And so the hundreds of people did this, and then they narrowed it down to 26 people come in and do a lengthy audition. got there. And they put us through a day of ropes. At the end of the day, they hired 10 people for a week because they said, this audition's not over. We're gonna pay you a week's salary you're gonna do improv for a week, and we're gonna see who the six people are. And four of you're gonna go home. And six of gonna say, I mean, this was long before these reality TV shows. I was in the reality TV show. I'm sure you know this about me, Paul. I'm deeply competitive so there was no way now that I had made it to this point that I was gonna be one of those four people. so that competitive thing I. Drove me and I got cast as one of these six new professional improvisers for this company where you, and you understand what professional improv is. You stand on stage, an audience comes in and you say, what's something you like to do in your spare time? And someone says ski in the Alps. And suddenly you're doing a scene or a song about skiing in the Alps. Immediately you have a tiny little huddle time and away you go. was a major transition for me. That told me that I had these professional skills, and that was as I was rounding, I think I was past the midpoint of my teaching career. So I did the professional improv and taught at the same time, which was huge. Was hard to balance those two. And so that was a huge catalyst. And so that with pride and looking at these beautiful plays. And of course I'm, I said I'm competitive. We entered festivals. We didn't just do'em for ourselves and we won festivals and that's it. You know, you have those kids suddenly who were socially awkward. Suddenly they're going to drama festivals and winning transformational. I'm saying if I can do that for kids, what can I do for adults I can change the world so that more people are seeing these pieces of theater? Are upping their joy, upping their commitment to a moment. Theater is magical. When you attend a play that's excellent, you leave the theater and your life has changed. I'm all about enriching lives. So I think that was the of the recipe for what this move was for that.'cause remember chapter one, high school Drama teacher, chapter two, Mr. Show Business. I know where you're going. Chapter three, like away we go. But you see how the first two steps made sense for who I was.

Paul: 17:54

Absolutely on. It's clear that from a young age you knew what your why was. Your why. That we, you know, we talk about this all the time now. Your why, and it's a big part of this season, right? Like discovering what it is that makes you unique in your space. And it's rare to meet somebody to be fair that kind of. I guess even if you couldn't, if somebody had articulated it to you and said why do you do what you do? You probably, at least at the early part of that, I wouldn't have known why you do what you do, just that you enjoy it. It was a passion and you were working on your passion. But it's clear now that you know throughout that entire thing that the one theme that kept you going was that the impact that you were having on other people's lives and your ability to. Transform what they were experiencing, what they were doing, how they were perceiving it through your arts, through the arts that you were helping other people with. And I think that's a beautiful gift to be able to give to people. You're right. Phase three is kind of where I'm most curious because that feels like a career. All of what you've discussed feels like a lifelong career. At what point did you decide that you then wanted to help business owners? I. Like, how did you transition from a successful director, actor, you know, all these award-winning productions. I can imagine you've had an amazing experience. You met some fantastic actors and and performers. Why did you transition from that to business leaders?

Michael: 19:20

I believe when you are really excellent at what you do and you heighten the stakes like you, one of the things I respect about you is that this podcast, as we prepared for it, critically important to you. I didn't feel like you had else in your life but me that this was all about you and me creating this podcast and making it excellent so that your community would be lifted and enriched. So that's, in theater we call that heightening the stakes. if I'm coaching you and Leo in a scene, a father son scene in a play, and I think you're sort of, into it, I'll say, Hey Paul, come on. Heighten your stakes. I believe when you heighten your stakes, magic happens. people are very interested and in love with people who heighten their stakes. It's very charismatic and people are smarter than you give them credit for. They do all the heavy lifting for you. I didn't decide, oh, I'm gonna be a business coach. Others did. So think about it. High school drama teacher. You can imagine how committed and passionate I was. You know, that first marriage fell apart, probably partially because of my complete commitment to those high school kids. My rehearsal room door was always open parents would stray in and watch rehearsals. Paul, one of those parents turned out to be the corporate shrink of a major utility company in the UK and in New England. I don't know how many years or months this was afterwards, he called me and he said, Michael, I watched how you coached my daughter, Sabrina and her peers. Do you think you could translate those skills coaching a CEO? Because I'm the corporate shrink of this utility company and I'm running out of things to do with my CEO. Do you think you could translate those skills to that you know me well enough, Paul? I'm not big on the no word. That's why I'm doing this podcast with you, you know? So I said, oh, yeah, sure, I can do that. Well, when I hung up with him, I went and looked up CEO in the dictionary. Does your viewership know what a dictionary is? Yeah. So I didn't even know what A CEO was. What's a CEO? They brought me in. Paul HR interviewed me for three hours on straight back chairs like this. It was like a grilling, I thought I was going to prison. At the end of the three hours, they not only gave me the CEO to coach, but the nine VPs in line to be the next in, in uk you call them more managing directors, I guess, in line to be the next big shot because the CEO had already announced that he was leaving. So yes, they not only gave him the CEO to coach but these other nine people. So all of a sudden Mr. Show business. Is coaching these 10 hot shots and telling them what to do. I had lots of imposter syndrome back then, but I kept plucking through and doing the things, coaching them the same way I had coached actors. One of them turned out to be in this leadership group and he said, I need to hire you to come to observe me in this leadership group. So I went with my trustee legal pad that I always have, and I took notes through the whole meeting. They were about to process a confidential issue. The chair of the group dismissed me, and as I was walking out the door, he said, Hey, you took a lot of notes. Read those notes. And I said, oh, well, my notes from my client are confidential. He said, bull, you are taking notes about everybody. So this was in Boston. And he said, read'em, spill'em. I read all my notes. Paul, I, it was either that night or the next day, he called me and he said, I want you to be a speaker. He said, I'm gonna hire you for my two. This was spring fall of 2003. He said, January, 2004. You're gonna lead off the year speaking to my two groups. I'm gonna send you the paperwork. This was part of Vistage International that you talked about in my intro. The, and it's in the uk and there are so many splinter groups, but basically it's an organization that's worldwide that gets, people, see leaders of companies to sit in a room. You have, you know, 14 to 20 disparate groups. And they meet monthly. And I started on the speaker circuit. Of that, that January, 2004, because of the goodness of this chair, he saw it in me, and I created you on your best day overnight. My 35 secret weapons to help you be you on your best day overnight. You know? And I say created overnight. I put it pen to paper overnight. This was something I was living my whole life. I simply translated what I had done in my career with kids, my career with theater. So you see how coaching executives is a collision. the educational theater world and the professional theater world. those same skills that I had been working on in both of those, both for myself and in transferring those skills to others was what I used for executives, the rest is history. I did his first two groups. He went on this thing called Chair Net where he gossiped about me. Someone else picked me up and before long. That's how I got to the UK so often. Hallelujah. You know, was because of that organization. And then other people met me and brought me in for other things. the here I am, all because of a high school drama rehearsal, Paul. So Paul here's the thing, why, what ha, why did I get to where I am? Because I don't believe in the four letter word. Just, I never said, ah, it's just a rehearsal. They're just high school kids. It's a rehearsal. high school kids. not just doing a podcast this morning. I'm doing a podcast with Paul. When you heighten the stakes, magic happens.

Paul: 25:30

I ab, this is one of my favorite conversations. I've thoroughly enjoyed this. A lot of people talk about personal brand these days, right? Personal brands become something a lot of people roll their eyes at. I don't wanna be a thought leader. I don't wanna be an influencer. I don't want to have a personal brand. And I think what you are proving to all of us is that we have a personal brand, whether we like it or not, and a personal brand is not something that you've just. Have on LinkedIn. It's not something that you just have on any social media platform. It's how people perceive you when you are not in the room. It's how people you work with, your family, your friends. It's how you turn up. And I think you've very succinctly drawn a line under why that's important for all of us in that. How we do anything is how we do everything. And that's one of the core things I've always raised my kids on, right? You're gonna go and train for football, practice, you train, but train as if you're in a game. Don't train like you're here to pass some time for half an hour. And it's fun. Train like you're in a game because when the game comes, you don't wanna make those mistakes. You wanna make them now, but you won't make those mistakes now if you don't train hard. I'm, we can apply that to lots and lots of things. So I love your philosophy around all of that. Talk us a little bit through you on your best day, if you would like. What are the, what's the core to that?

Michael: 26:53

how we do anything is how we do everything. I love that. I'll

Paul: 26:58

can't clear ownership for that. I heard that somewhere else as well.

Michael: 27:01

All right, fair enough. And I'll be glad to talk about you and your best day. The people who are nervous about being thought leaders, maybe translated to action leader, you know, because you and your best day. What's real important to us as directors, as actors is the word objective a noun, not as an adjective. So most of my coaching starts with what's your objective? I did that with you this morning. I said, you know, what's the objective of the, of this podcast? So we define objective as what do you want the audience to leave and do the end of the event? Not think, not feel, but do. What do you want people to do? And so once I know the objective. Then I'm able to serve you and to serve the podcast. So in theater we have another thing. So objective is your desired result. By the end of the meeting I want, we have this other thing called super objective. super objective is what the objective sits under. It's what we want on our tombstone. So mine is secret weapon number 35 of the 35 that every single human being I meet, whether it's you during this podcast. it is the cab driver, whether it is my family member, they're gonna be better after meeting me. And so that's what carries me through a day. And that's the philosophy behind you and your best day. The most important word is authenticity. And what most people struggle with is they wanna challenge me. Well, if you're excellent all the time, that can't be authentic. You know, you just have to. So I say, well. What those people do is they play the obstacle instead of playing the objective. Do you understand that distinction, Paul? So people under the guise of authenticity say, well, my back hurts today, so how is it authentic for me? okay, Mr. Crabby, your back may hurt. That's the obstacle. What's your objective? What's your authentic objective? My objective's, my team to produce today. They gotta produce. Well, can we think about the tactics you need to create authentically to get your people to produce and whining about your back is certainly not one of them. It's all you have to do is go to a restaurant once and have the server come to you and say, oh, I'm so tired. You're my last table. I can't wait for this day to be over to realize that. Wait a minute, would anyone bring. An authentic self that's bad to someone else. What is the point in that? Why would you do that? It takes the same amount of energy to bring your best authentic self. It's not an energy difference. It takes, what are all those cliches about how many muscles it takes to frown and how many muscles it takes to smile. And so seeing underachieve, seeing people achieve. magic in a room. Seeing that balance tells you what you wanna do. So what I strive to be is my best every day. Now, am I perfect far from it? It's not about perfection at all. It's about clarifying an objective and then going after it with your whole heart and soul. And so when I realized that people play the obstacle pretty regularly, well, I think 2008, 2008. So I coach a lot of construction teams. So this is a typical conversation, Paul. You know, the owner of a construction company would say, a minute, Michael, I just laid off four people today, so you expect me to go in all Michael, aso happy tomorrow. How is that authentic? So I take my chill pills and I breathe and I say, I ask questions. Is your authentic objective tomorrow to make the people left standing mourn? People that you just laid off. No. your authentic objective tomorrow to make the people left standing nervous that they're the next ones that are gonna be fired? No. No. No. Or is your authentic objective tomorrow to make the people left standing do the same amount of work they've always done, if not more for the same amount of money, if not less so that you can get your company out of this thing and start putting food on people's tables? Yeah. That's the authentic human being that you bring to the workplace. That's you on your best day. Think theater, Paul. So we're doing a play, you know, and today's the first rehearsal of the play and you get your script and it says Paul walks across the stage drunk, approaching Michael. And so you come up and you go, oh Michael, are you? I go, Ugh. Paul, what are you doing that's so fake. I. You say, well, Michael, the script says that I'm drunk. Paul, when you're drunk, what usually is your objective? What are you usually trying to get people to think? Usually people are trying to show that they're not drunk, that they're able, you know, I've been in pubs in the uk, you guys should know this better than us. You know, it's like, so it's no, you don't play drunk, playing. Drunk is playing the adjective. You play the action. what you and your best day is all about is creating a series of actions with intentionality every day. That heightens your excellence rather than playing the obstacle, we know what the obstacle is. Let's play the action, let's play the objective and come up with tactics that help us win that objective. All my training when I do you and your best day programs is always gonna include a little bit of improv, a little bit of theater, because it's about going outside your comfort zone. would you wanna do the same thing you've always done? Why would I wanna stay a high school drama teacher my whole life? Why would I wanna stay a professional director, choreographer my whole life? always about, yes and improv. So yes, you are a crabby, serious CEO. Okay, fine. I accept that. And what else? So"yes, and" is the core of improv, Paul? So if I'm doing an improv with you and I say, Ooh Paul, there's a spider on your shoulder. can't say There is that. You have to say, oh yeah, it's my friend Phil. You wanna meet him? Or you have to say ah, get him off. That's yes. And same about life. Okay. You're crabby and your back hurts. Yes. And what else? And I wanna make my team better today. Yes. I'm a coach, one-on-one coach of executives. Yes. And I wanna do workshops and keynotes and do creative events that make people come to life more. Yes. And I don't do subtraction. I only do addition.

Paul: 33:43

Michael. I've thoroughly enjoyed the conversation from one end into the other, and I think we could probably do another three or four hours quite easily. I love running these podcasts because I kind of feel that way about a lot of my guests. We have some phenomenal personalities on. One last, one last question for you then before we wrap things up to date, which is the word on everyone's lips right now is ai, particularly chat, GPT digital tools. And I'd imagine coming from a theatrical background, you have some very specific strong feelings on the subject and how it's used and trended. With the rise of ai what do you think leaders should be doing now? To make sure that their communication evolves to come in line with that ai. Like what are the pitfalls that you'd like to see them avoid, and how can they really excel at what they're doing.

Michael: 34:31

Don't forget. Yes and. So what I'm seeing happening is what happens to my own team. I have a whopping four employees so I give an assignment Wendy, she's in San Francisco, she's my steer of the ship. hands a thing back to me and I say, oh, you used chat GBT for this, didn't you? And she said, how'd you know? GBT is wonderful and I want you to continue to use it. Yes. And. And when Wendy's on her a game, she takes the chat GBT and Wendy's it up, and she adds that humanity. So even though that's a simplistic example, that's the answer to your question. human beings, I believe and call me naive, will never go outta style. We were always gonna be needed. That's my passionate belief. And if we reject technology under some provincial thing, that no one is better than a human being, well, how silly is that? wouldn't even find my way from here to the, my next gig I use technology all the time. Look what we're doing right now. The magic of speaking across the pond like this, it's yes hand. How do we embrace all the new technology and always not, sometimes, always dose it with humanity. How can you create recipes that include the technology and the humanity to give you your distinct voice? Now, in order to do that, you need to know what your core values are. You need to know what your super objective is. What, do you, why? Why are you on this earth? What is the difference you wanna make? Then that's what you inject in the human being. you have people who know how to use the technology and insert their personality as well, think about that dynamic recipe you have for success. all I'm all in, I'm not technology is one of, certainly one of my weakest things, and you always have to know what you're weak at so that you, have other people helping you. do. And I embrace the technology. I embrace that I need to know more and I use it to make me better. deleting me. I never wanna remove me from the recipe you and your best day from me. My brand is me. What? And that's why it's kind of circular. And I know you did this on purpose'cause you're so brilliant, that initial conjecture you had about people rejecting and wanna having have their own brand. If you don't understand what you stand for, how do you know how to modulate technology? if you don't know who you are, then the technology is gonna take you over rather than you are embracing the technology and using it to augment you. Makes sense

Paul: 37:14

It is a beautiful summary. I love it. Thank you very much, Michael. It's been a genuine pleasure to have you on the show today, thank you very much for taking the time. And if folks are li listening along and they'd like to learn more, maybe they'd like to hire your services or just understand your methodology a bit more, how can they best contact you or find that information out?

Michael: 37:32

Yeah, go to my website, YouOnYourBestDay.com. I'll tell you, a lot of my UK brothers and sisters link in with me. I dunno if I ever told you this. I do a different outgoing voicemail message every single day. I've been doing that for about 45 years. Two of them. One on my cell phone, one on my home office. So I create 730 different outgoing voicemail messages every year of my life. It's one of the ways to keep me creative. So Wendy, the heretofore mentioned Wendy. I hired her in 2020. She's, by the way, a former drama student of mine. That's how I met her. I met her when she was 13 years old. She

Paul: 38:10

Amazing.

Michael: 38:11

lives in Francisco and she. When I hired her in 2020, she said, you're so dumb, man. Like these messages that you've been creating, they get erase. The next day. I'm gonna chronicle them, put them in a library, and I want you to video them. You pick one of the two, either your cell phone or the home phone. You're gonna video them as you do them, and we're sending them out to your universe. So that put more pressure on me to actually look half decent when I do it. Think about what locale I'm in. And so now my UK folks are watching those videos, India's ahead of you. So when I wake up in the morning, my phone is exploding. First with my buddies in India who say, today's message was very good, better than yesterday. And then the UK people saying, oh yes, this was. A little less boring than yesterday. So I get my feedback as it comes for the West, across the pond, and it's so much fun. And I was totally exaggerating, but the UK folks are so, actually, they're better than the Americans of telling me what's good and that, see, that's a myth about the UK brother. Is that every time I come to the uk, oh, Michael, we're not effusive here. We don't call people out for excellence the way you do bull. When I'm in the UK I get such beautiful, specific and to this day, my messages from my UK buddies, constituents, clients. I think is actually very powerful. And so I was totally making a joke about, yes, better than yesterday, about boring. No that's more don't get me going on Americans. So that's what I want your teams to do is start with that then think about the services I offer are one-on-one coaching, which all over the world workshops where I love going, gimme any excuse to come to the uk please. And then once a year, and someday you have to do this big guy for two and a half days here on the coast of Maine, I do a retreat. And so this year, it's September 9th through 11, no, September 11th through 13th, two and a half days of sheer improv. And I do it on a farm here in Maine where there are goats and chickens. And it's exercise after exercise, getting you to go outside your comfort zone and applying that to leadership. There's a giant barn on this farm that has a stage. It's quite lovely farm and the owner of the farm is also a gourmet cook who cooks for us while we're there. So it's this incredible adventure for two and a half days that really is me at my best, where I pull out everything that, that collision, we talked about, all the careers, and then people take that and apply it to their life, their career, a book they're writing, the workshops they're leading. Thank you for asking me that, Paul. Super sweet of you.

Paul: 41:04

I'm so I'm so pleased that we had you on as a guest today, Michael. It's brought such a smile at my face and it's. Really, I've genuinely enjoyed the conversation. Lovely to have you along. Thank you very much, and you are absolutely welcome to come back for a round two at some time as well. And people at home, thank you very much for watching along. I'm sure you've been both entertained and have learned something very substantial today as well. I've really enjoyed the points that Michael's made and I hope that it makes a big difference in your own corporate life, your personal life. And if nothing else that you've enjoyed and had fun today, which I think is important now and again as well. Right. Take care and I will see you next week. Bye-bye.